PyGrow

The Problem

Current methods to maximise agricultural yields emit vast amounts of carbon from soils and the production of fertilisers, destroy the fragile layer of topsoil we depend on to feed ourselves, and produce foods of low nutritional value while contaminating them and our environment with chemicals. Farmers are trapped between low commodity prices and an agro-chemical industry with a mandate to defeat nature at a profit.

Our Solution

To address this multi-faceted issue, we have developed a patented, novel technology that thermally decomposes biomass, producing a novel liquid biostimulant (PyGrow®) that mimics the way nature upregulates plant productivity and nutritional value - via the residues of wildfire. PyGrow® builds soil carbon and microbial communities rather than destroying them, is perfectly biodegradable, a highly cost-effective way to increase yields and plant vigor to resist disease and insect infestation, and restores the nutritional quality of produce.

Farmers struggle to economically survive in very competitive markets. Their primary objective is to maximise yields at the lowest cost. The agrochemical inputs they use to attempt to achieve this objective have a number of side-effects, including the destruction of soil organic carbon and the microbial community that supports plant productivity, nutrition and vigor, the release of vast amounts of CO2 and nitrous oxide (273 times the warming effect of CO2) into the atmosphere, the contamination of ground and surface waters with nitrates and phosphates, the contamination of our foods and environment with a variety of chemicals, produce with low nutritional value, and the degradation of our ecosystem through the loss of insects, pollinators, etc.

While all these side-effects are substantial when taken together, they are largely ignored, tolerated to allow farmers to maximise yields at the lowest cost, so that we can have very affordable food. Market forces have not aligned food production with ideal environmental or health outcomes. Rather the contrary has occurred, and the negative side-effects are catching up with us.

Our use of fossil fuels is cited as the major cause of global warming. However, research indicates up to 30% of the excess atmospheric CO2 has its origin in topsoil destruction. We can't convert excess CO2 to oil and put it back underground. But we can, and we must convert CO2 back to stable soil organic carbon if we are to survive and thrive as a civilisation.

How PyGrow Sequesters Carbon

PyGrow® is unique compared to competitors in three layers or economic sectors.

1) PyGrow® increases agricultural yields beyond conventional agrochemical inputs at much lower cost. Per hectare, the weighted cost of NPK fertiliser in Europe averages €331 per hectare, whereas PyGrow costs about €20 per hectare could replace most if not all of the nitrogen applied and a significant portion of the phosphorus and potassium applied while increasing yields.

2) Research indicates PyGrow has the capacity to sequester prodigious amounts of carbon in soil by upregulating photosynthesis, root exudation, soil microbial activity and the formation of stable mineral associated organic carbon in sequence. The average cited in Agroscope's review is a 9% increase in soil organic carbon per year, which equates to about 26 tonnes CO2e per hectare and year. This initial research needs to be confirmed, but what it points to is a highly efficient way to sequester massive amounts of carbon at very low cost, in fact at a profit, that would be integrated into our economy. Hence PyGrow mediated regenerative agriculture could be a highly affordable, simple way to sequester gigatonnes of carbon per year, whereas all other CDR techniques proposed to date become unaffordable and/or impractical at large scale

3) PyGrow is similar to pyroligneous acid (PA), which is produced largely in Asia as an artisanal biostimulant, and yet there are key differences in both its composition and in our patented manufacturing process. In a nutshell, our manufacturing process is both much more efficient and much more precise, which enables us to optimise PyGrow's biostimulant properties.